The Australian Open tennis, which ended on Sunday with the victory of Serbian Novak Djokovic, “broke” the attendance record by exceeding 900,000 fans during the three weeks of the tournament, organizers said Tuesday.
“We didn’t just beat his (previous) record, we almost broke it“Craig Tiley, director of the Australian tennis federation and organizer of the Australian Open, told The Age newspaper.
According to Tiley, From January 9 -when the qualifying matches started- to the 29th, 902,312 fans attended the venue from Melbourne Park, where the first of the season’s four Grand Slams was played.
During the two main weeks of the tournament, between the 16th and 29th, attendance reached 839,192 peopledata surpassing the mark of 812,174 reached in January 2020, before the tournament was held with restrictions during the pandemic.
The organizer also pointed out that on Saturday the 21st, in the third round of matches, there were 94,854 spectators, more than the previous record of 93,709.
The attendance data for the Australian Open exceeded the figures for other major tournaments such as Wimbledon (515,164 people in 2022), Roland Garros (613,000 attendees in 2022) and United States Open (776,000 fans in 2022) -in the two main competition weeks-.
“People like to have some fun, and tennis is a good option for them.“Tiley pointed out that he hopes to reach one million fans in the next edition.
Source: La Verdad
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